nature

Nature is a cruel beast. If you aren’t doing the eating, you’re the one being eaten.

Wish someone had told this lizard that, though.

Another one doing the eating that night was Melanie Jade Ottaway, who sat down to eat dinner when she noticed this gigantic huntsman spider about to chow down on a gecko. The spider sat patiently on a glass door with the lizard hanging out of its mouth. Nature is terrifying.

She told The Daily Mail, “'We just sat down to have dinner at the dining table and noticed something massive on the glass sliding door. I got up to have a closer look and there it was, a huge huntsman with a gorgeous little gecko in. It was too late to save him, so we let nature take its path.”

A tornado of fire chased firefighters in St. Albert, Canada into a river to escape. When a campfire in the area got out of control, the wind conditions and dry grass led to this terrifying hellstorm. Apparently, it's technically called a "fire whirl" as a helpful meteorologist on Twitter pointed out before providing this GIF explaining how it was created:

Once a decade, Death Valley explodes with flowers in a "super bloom". Thanks to October rainstorms, that's exactly what's happening this year. This video explains the phenomenon and shows some footage of the fields of flowers just before they've fully blossomed into this rare spectacle:

This picture was taken at Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park. Apparently this happens every year but it's hard to catch a picture at just the right moment. Photographer Sangeeta Dey explained this on a post about her own picture on Facebook:

Every year for two weeks in February, the sun sets at a certain angle and illuminates the waterfall in luminescent orange and red, making it look like a fluid fire. I’ve met photographers who said that they have been coming for 11 years only to see this happen 2 or 3 times.

It's tough to believe this isn't some airbrushed design on a 1990s shirt. The world can pull out some crazy beautiful things sometimes.

This group of humpback whales bask in the northern lights of Norway in a super peaceful swim along the coast.

According to the video's description:

This Spectacular footage of a group of humpback whales swimming under the northern lights off the coast of Norway was shot by Norwegian cameraman Harald Albrigtsen, who works for the Norwegian media company NRK.

Large gatherings of whales like this are common in the waters off Norway, and this time of year is prime time to see the northern lights in the country.

A pack of 14 lions was recently caught on camera surrounding a 1-year old elephant at the Norman Carr Safaris Chinzombo Camp in Zambia by journalists on safari.
Odds were not in this baby elephant's favor, but thanks to some quick wit and a nearby stream, it was able to escape and reunite with its herd.
The safari guide was as shocked as everyone else. "In the 30-plus years I have been a safari guide in Zambia at the Luangwe Park, never have I seen anything like this," he told the Post.